1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electronic apparatus, and a control method therefor, and more particularly, to an electronic apparatus which is suitable for controlling image pickup means of the user and/or the communication partner (for example, in a video conference system), and a control method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to the provision of a digital and high-speed public communication network, it becomes possible to utilize a video conference system and a visual telephone system in which a moving image and a voice are simultaneously transmitted.
In a conventional video-conference or visual-telephone terminal, a camera for photographing meeting members or a speaker is mounted on a camera mount, so that panning, tilting, zooming, the control of the diaphragm and the like of the camera can be controlled using, for example, dedicated operation knobs on an operation panel of the user""s apparatus. These functions can also be subjected to remote control by the communication partner""s apparatus via a communication network.
In the above-described conventional configuration, however, the method of operating the operation knobs or the like is not related to the user""s intuition and therefore is difficult to operate.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problems.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus which is easy to operate.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of controlling an electronic apparatus which is easy to operate.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus which is easy to operate and a method for controlling the apparatus when controlling image-pickup means.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a new user interface for an image-pickup device.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus having new functions.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus which can perform a new type of control for an image pickup device.
According to one aspect, the present invention which achieves these objectives relates to an electronic apparatus comprising data processing means for processing data, first output means for outputting the data processed by the data processing means to display means in order to display the data, image pickup means for picking up an object image and for outputting motion-image data, and second output means for outputting motion-image data output by the image-pickup means and control-window data for controlling the image-pickup means to the display means.
According to another aspect, the present invention relates to a method for controlling an electronic apparatus including data processing means for processing provided data and output means for outputting the data processed by the processing means to display means in order to display the data, comprising the steps of generating motion-image data from image-pickup means, and outputting the motion-image data and control-window data for controlling the image pickup means to the display means.
According to still another aspect, the present invention relates to an electronic apparatus for controlling respective control factors for image pickup means generating a motion-image signal, comprising display means for displaying an image signal from the image pickup means on an image display area together with control icons for the respective control factors, pointing means for controlling the respective control icons, and control means for controlling the image pickup means in accordance with an operation of a control icon by the pointing means.
According to yet another aspect, the present invention relates to a method of controlling an electronic apparatus including image pickup means, comprising the steps of displaying an image signal from the image pickup means together with control icons corresponding to respective control factors for the image pickup means when controlling the respective control factors, and controlling the image pickup means in accordance with an operation of a displayed control icon.
According to still a further aspect, the present invention relates to an electronic apparatus including image pickup means, comprising means for assigning areas for an object assigned by pointing means on a display picture surface, calculation means for calculating an angle of rotation and an amount of zooming of the image pickup means for zooming an image within the areas in the display picture surface, and control means for controlling a rotation driving unit and a zooming driving unit of the image-pickup means in accordance with the calculated values.
The foregoing and other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.